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High Blood Pressure Hypertension

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My B.P has been normal to low for all of my life.  I am very active and eat relatively healthy.   However, for the past year my blood pressure has been slowly creeping up.  The top number went from 120, to 130, and a few weeks ago 136/100.  At age 54 it concerned me.  My family has a history of HPB.  My father, sister and aunt all have it and are on medication. How did I know my blood pressure was high?  I had a few symptoms that were bothering me.  I had frequent headaches where in the past I have had zero issues with headaches.  I was constantly tired and I had to take a break when walking up 2 flights of stairs.  That's not usual for me seeing I run twice a week.  My heart kept pounding and my pulse would race for NO apparent reason. Last week I was feeling particularly anxious about work and all the things I had to get accomplished.  I felt so overwhelmed and my heart kept racing.  I also felt dizzy.  I ended up stopping at CVS and walked over to the blood

Emergency Room Visits

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Yesterday I was driving back from New Hampshire.  I had been on the road all day from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm.  I was about 30 minutes from home when I started seeing this squiggly, translucent "N" shaped thing in the middle of  my left eye.  I tried to ignore it for a while until the "N" turned into a sideways "V".   The color went from clear and squiggly to a bit of a rainbow color.  What on earth, I thought? My heart started pounding and my pulse went up to 102 (according to my fitbit watch).  I drove to the nearest CVS to take my blood pressure.  The first reading was 184/94.  I thought to myself,  "That has got to be wrong".  I retook the test and it was even higher at 189/94.  I got back in the car and drove to the nearest Urgent Care, where they told me to go to the ER ASAP. Yup, back in the car and drove to Baystate ER which was about 10 minutes away from the urgent care center.  Luckily I found a parking spot right away.  I walked i